The Intensity of Insanity
by Blahsadfeguie
Summary: When Dr. Robotnik stumbles across a powerful sphere lost long ago in a great war, he thinks of it as his world-conquerer. But then things start to get crazy...Sonic and co. will be quite busy with this problem.
1. Chapter 1

**THE INTENSITY OF INSANITY**

**Note: For those of you that have read my other stories, this one is somewhat similar as in the humor factor. I will be maintaining a degree of seriousness for you serious fans. Especially those who haven't heard of me before. I'll have the narrator be the major source of randomness, as well as the important object in the middle of this chapter which I won't mention. Other than that, don't expect a total laugh-fest (although this item does play a crucial role in this fic).**

**About my other stories, DPQS and OCMU, they're sitting in my hard-drive collecting dust and cobwebs. You know what cleans files the best? Feedback.**

**Also, I'll be making references to other sources of entertainment. You may recognize one or two lines in there...**

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Chapter 1: An Egg, a Sphere, and a Paul

It is quiet for a morning. There were no birds. There were no bugs. Nothing that could make noise lived in our first area of interest. Was it a desert? A wasteland? Not even remotely close. It may be silent, but the ocean is teeming with life. There are fish in all directions. The coral reef followed the motion of the waves. Hehe, am I cool or what? You don't see a lot of fanfics opening with an aquatic scene! I'm original!!

"Shut up!" said a nearby fish. "This story will never get started!"

Ok, fine. I'll just point out the large ominous submarine in the distance and get on with this pointless tale. Yes, it was a submarine, and it was cruising along frantically as if in search of some important object. The sub itself was not looking for anything, but zoom in on the eyes of the all-too-familiar evil logo and you'll find who is really searching. It was none other than Dr. Robotnik, and his hands whipping around the many buttons of the control panel resembled a tornado, destroying everything in its path.

"Gah!" shouted the villain in frustration. "Where is that blasted thing? According to these ancient texts, the Intensity Sphere should be right _there!!_" He pointed at a spot on the ocean floor as he emphasized his final word. Ironically, there was a small glimmer of light in that exact spot in the shape of a sphere. Robotnik was shocked at himself for pointing out his goal so quickly, but he decided to think nothing of it and just get that thing before a fish eats it.

While he's extending his sub's large robotic hand ever so slowly towards the sphere, how about I explain what he thinks it is? Recently, Dr. Robotnik bought a strange ancient tablet for 2 cents off E-bay. Much of the text was corroded, but the legible section told about a sphere with unimaginable power known as the Intensity Sphere. The tablet also mentions the Chaos Emeralds for some reason. Finally, it told of a great War that took place over 9,000 (hehe) years ago that was fought for this small orb, fought over this very ocean in a mystical battle of the air. In the process, the orb fell into the depths of the sea, never to be seen again. Or something like that. Anyway, being the typical, gullible main villain that he is, Robotnik believed the cheap hunk of stone and decided to search for this orb. Has he finally found it, or is this just a pearl forgotten by some random oyster attacked by a predator? We shall soon find out, as the robot arm has (finally) recovered the object and brought it into the cockpit. Robotnik took the orb and fingered it observantly.

"Aha! I have it!" said Robotnik, with a hint of disbelief. "The Intensity Sphere!! Now I shall use its power to defeat that pesky hedgehog and take over the world!!"

"But what does it DO?" said a generic robot monitoring a control station.

Robotnik paused. "Gee, I, uh...don't know," he said, scratching his head. "All right, you weird little orb, do something!" He held it up. At first, nothing seemed to happen. And then, all of a sudden, there was a loud CRASH! The entire vessel shook as if by great impact. All of the robots were running around in a panic mode, unable to figure out what to do. Alarms blared and lights flashed. After his initial shock reaction, the evil doctor looked slowly back at his new possession. "What did you do...?" he said quietly.

"Sir," said a robot, "While you were examining your sphere, the Egg-Sub had no one at the controls and crashed into a large rock."

Robotnik thrust his palm into his face. "Well I guess I won't be able to use this sphere yet..."

"Sir..." inquired the robot again.

"What do you want?!" shouted its master in anger.

"Um...shouldn't we do something about the crash?"

"Oh, take us to the surface or something. I'm busy."

"The ship's taking on water, sir..."

"Well you go take care of it! Just let me be for a few minutes!" He obviously cared more about getting this pearl to "work" than his own safety...weird.

After the robot rushed to the back of the ship, the orb began to glow a bright orange. Robotnik watched in astonishment as it glowed ever brighter. It got so bright that it was impossible to see anything else. The light dimmed again, as quickly as it had started. Robotnik stared at the orb, curious about the light. He looked up and suddenly found another version of himself standing there! The only difference was the second Robotnik had an orange mustache and orange clothes.

"What the heck?!" said the original doctor.

"What the haxxor?" replied his duplicate.

As to why the orange-suited Robotnik had said "haxxor" like a n00b, he couldn't quite explain it. The awkward silence came for a while as the two stared each other down.

The robot from earlier rushed back into the room. "Sir, we have successfully repaired the hole in the--" It stopped, shocked to the same degree by the second Robotnik.

Good thing he came, otherwise this silence may never have been broken. The original snapped out of his trance and looked at the Sphere once again. "This thing copied me...and made me orange."

The new Robotnik came to as well. "Yes, Mr. Red-dude-with-dark-stache, I am your copy. You may call me Dr. Sucuvpol."

"...'Suck-of-Paul'?! That's a weird name. How about I just call you Paul?"

"Works for me!" agreed 'Paul'. "I always found it hard to pronounce my real name anyway." He turned around and poked at the robot, still staring transfixed at the pair. "Where do you keep your bagels?"

"Um...bagels...? I don't have any bagels."

"Turnips?"

"Um, no."

"Spaghetti?"

"I had spaghetti for dinner last night but I don't keep any on my submarine...What, are you hungry or something?"

"No, I just want to say stuff."

Robotnik started to think that Paul wasn't quite a carbon copy. In his silence, he failed to notice that Paul was about to open the still-frozen robot's battery pack. That thing must be going through an endless DO-LOOP cycle or something.

"Aha, here's the problem," said Paul. "Too many toasters!" Maybe not. Paul had discovered a bunch of miniature toasters in the place of batteries in the robot.

"Where did those come from?!" shouted Robotnik in a flash of anger and confusion.

"You know what they say," said Paul. "All toasters toast toast!" He disconnected the toasters from the designated battery areas. Good idea? Probably not, as the robot started to malfunction, in spite of the lack of battery power... The machine went crazy, flailing its limbs here and there, running all over the place like a chicken with its head cut off. And this was soon to be even more true as the robot's head popped off its shoulders and bounced around, finally landing on a button on the control panel that sent the whole sub spiraling to the surface at a breakneck speed. All this time, the robots and Robotnik were frantically trying as best as they could to avoid the crazy robot and its bouncing head, and they definitely weren't expecting a 100-miles-per-hour launch straight up. Paul stayed perfectly still and calm.

"All fixed," said Paul as the Egg-Sub hit the surface. There was absolutely no movement inside the ship, besides the occasional twitching of the damaged robot...

"He's crazy, but he's just what the doctor ordered."

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**And there you have it. The speed of my next chapter depends solely on your reviews. If I get a lot of reviews, expect the next chapter before the week's up. If I get one or two, it may take a few weeks. If I don't get any, don't expect it to be worked on unless I get really bored. Bottom line, I write because people enjoy my work, so show me you enjoy it or I won't write! Thanks in advance.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 is out for those of you that care! I have an odd habit of being unusually formal in the introduction of the first chapter of most of my stories...I'm not really like that. But one big limiter in my work is the fact that I am a worried professionalist; I tend to think my own writings are mediocre. There's only one way to prove me wrong: feedback. Not just in reviews, but if you favorite or alert my story, that's usually a good sign. So if you're not feeling up to typing out a review, but you liked my story anyway, please at least favorite it or something.**

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Chapter 2: Picture Perfect...sorta.

Whoosh!

"Whoa!"

"Was that..."

"I believe so."

"Neat!"

Many citizens watched with curiosity and awe as the telltale blue blur whizzed past them in less than a second. It zigzagged around cars, between buildings, and turning corners with miniscule difficulty. He must've been in a hurry. Then again, he always seems to be in a hurry. But what exactly was he doing in the middle of the smallish town of Falcon Springs? Was he there to endorse a petition for a better-sounding name? Not quite. He stopped suddenly in front of a small restaurant. The sign identified it as "Pizza Place". Within the windows, one could see half the tables filled with customers happily chowing down on various kinds of pizza and chatting about random things. Sure, it had a generic name, but this franchise was famous for its peculiar pizza pies, containing very odd ingredients. Nothing inedible, just stuff one wouldn't normally find on a pizza. Sonic heard about this recently, and was curious enough to try it out--and of course, he invited his friends. Waiting in front of the restaurant was a lone figure, small and delicate, staring up into the sky. As she heard the rushing of Sonic's footsteps coming to a stop in front of the building, her face lit up with excitement.

Sonic prepared to greet her. "Oh, hi A-" but before he could finish his sentence he found himself in the arms of a familiar pink hedgehog.

"Oh, Sonic," started Amy with a vice-grip, unable to see Sonic's bored expression over her shoulders, "I was starting to think you'd never show."

"Hey, I'm always on time," replied Sonic. "You're kinda tight..."

"Oh, sorry," she said, releasing him.

"Where are the others anyway?"

"Well I haven't heard anything from Tails yet, but Knuckles kinda ran by here and shouted something about the Master Emerald before running off again..."

"Man, can't that guy just get a safe or something? Or at least get someone else to watch over that thing."

Amy gave a petit giggle. "You're so funny, Sonic."

_Uh, was it really that funny? _he wondered. He was getting kinda nervous, standing here by himself with a girl that loves him to death.

"Well, since we're the only ones here, let's just get that pizza and have it together...alone..." She drifted off in a dreamy tone. Sonic desperately wished that someone, anyone else he knew would get here soon as a distraction...

And, wouldn't you know it, at that exact moment a slight whirring sound filled the air as an unidentified yellow flying object descended into the vicinity. Tails landed a short distance away from the two lovebirds, his tails slowing to a stop. He was panting wildly as if he was in a big hurry.

"Hey, Tails," Sonic called with relief. "I was wondering when--"

"No time," interrupted the fox. "I was on my way over here when I saw one of Eggman's robots rampaging through the city! I got here as fast as I could..."

"Oh man," said Sonic. "That egghead just has to ruin _everything_. When will he ever learn? Come on, Amy. We got an egg to fry..._again._" His tone of annoyance barely covered his overwhelming relief that something had saved him from being smothered with love. Amy, however, was shocked speechless.

The duo followed Tails deeper downtown, a site of many tall buildings and offices. If they had arrived any later, though, that last clause would be a huge lie. Already, at least half of said buildings were on the ground in pieces. The culprit was a giant lizard robot that bore a striking resemblance to a famous Japanese symbol of terror. The only difference was that Dr. Robotnik was stationed in the Robotnik Standard Cockpit Area: an unprotected glass dome at the very top of the robot where the villain was clearly visible inside. Sonic sighed at the now clichéd assault type. He immediately became a blue spinning sphere and charged straight for the center of the behemoth. In a gigantic explosion, the entire robot collapsed. As Sonic landed on the other side, he couldn't help but think that there was something wrong with this scene...He never fell his enemy's robots quite this easily. His suspicions were fueled even more when the Robotnik that crawled out of the wreckage had a slight change in color scheme.

"Wow, Eggman, what's with the new wardrobe?" said Sonic.

"Who is Eggman?" replied the orange-suited fellow before Sonic had a chance to continue. "All I know is Mr. Spaghetti."

Tails and Amy exchanges glances in confusion. Sonic scratched his head. That's probably the weirdest thing they've ever heard. And it was about to get weirder.

"So who are you anyway, turnip-head?"

"Um...Sonic?"

"Why do you sound so unsure? Is your hat loose? Let me remove it for you."

Paul approached Sonic as if he really was wearing a hat and was going to take it off. Sonic backed away as if in fear of contracting a highly contagious disease. Somehow, Paul was able to back him into a corner. Slowly and menacingly, the clone reached for the hedgehog's head and, indeed, removed a snazzy-looking top hat that Sonic had never seen before.

"Nice hat," said Paul. "Can I have it?"

"Um..." Sonic really had no idea what was going on. He couldn't come up with anything to say.

"I'll take that as a yes." Instead of placing the hat on his own head, Paul quickly--and when I say quickly, I mean in less than a second--devoured the hat like some kind of delicious food! This produced an expression from Sonic that could not be described in words. If only I brought my camera. "Thanks, that hit the spot. Say, you got any toothpicks?" A response was obviously not coming. "Ah! There's one." He immediately rushed over to where Tails and Amy were spectating the odd scene. Amy barely managed to get away, but Paul was still able to seize Tails and use one of his tails like a toothpick. The toothpick's expression mirrored that of Sonic's. I _really _wish I brought my camera.

Oh, what's this? Looks like someone brought theirs. Hovering a safe distance from the ground was the real Robotnik, holding his own camera, zooming in on Tails's face. "Ho ho ho!" he laughed, taking a picture and placing it next to a close-up of Sonic's similar face. "Priceless. Now that I've captured their expressions, I'll leave it to Paul to capture their bodies!" He laughed again.

Back on the ground, as if on cue, Paul immediately dropped his furry toothpick and stated, "Enough! I'll grab my sword," while pulling out a large two-handed sword. He struck it into the ground, creating a fissure that swallowed up the trio. Robotnik observed eagerly from his hovercraft.

"Yes!!" shouted the observer. "It worked! I can't believe I finally have that blue rat and his friends in my captivity!"

"I don't need this sword anymore," said Paul, tossing it with surprising force straight up--and straight at Robotnik's craft! Before anyone could object, it struck the bottom, causing the Intensity Sphere that he was keeping to fall out and straight into the crevice with Sonic and co.! Robotnik's expression now mimicked that of his enemies just moments before...and Paul responded with a quick headshot with a camera of his own.

"Score!"

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**Looks as if Sonic's not in as much of a pickle as he could be...but what will that orb do next?**

**Same policy as last chapter; at least one review (and now I'll accept a favorite or alert) and I'll start up Chapter 3. The more I get, the more motivated I feel. This one took me two weeks because I only received two instances of feedback. Oh well...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry about any hold-ups since the last chapter. I practically forgot about the story! I really should check my emails more often. But anyway, here's Chapter 3. And enjoy.**

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Chapter 3: Team Colors

"Wahhhhhhhhh!!"

Crash.

Pitch-black. No one could see a thing, not even the crevice they just fell into.

"Whoa...ow...where are we?"

"More importantly, what the heck just happened?!"

"Someone's standing on me."

"Oh, sorry."

"Where's the light switch around here?"

Click. Oddly enough, on the wall adjacent to Sonic's hand was a light switch. When the light came on, our heroes noticed they had fallen into an underground dungeon. There appeared to be no way in or out, other than the barely visible crack, far above the ground, that they had fallen through. The walls were slightly damp and mostly bare, forming a neat square-shaped cell. After getting up from under Amy's feet, Tails examined the crack. Perhaps he could fly up to it? Could he carry both Sonic and Amy at the same time? No, he'd have to make two trips.

Tails's thoughts were cut short when a small round object fell from the sky and made direct contact with his forehead. It wasn't enough to knock him down, but it was stunning. He picked it up and looked at it.

"What's this?" he said curiously. The others turned around and gazed at the orb. It was shining with as much brightness as it could without blinding the observer.

"I don't know," said Sonic. "But it's probably nothing. All we need to focus on is getting out of this mess..."

"What _I _would like to know is why Eggman was acting so weird," said Amy. "I've never seen him do any of that stuff before."

"Think it may have something to do with this?" Tails indicated the sphere. Amy shrugged.

"Let me see that," demanded Sonic. Right as Tails was in the process of handing it over, the Orb quickly released a bright cyan light, which faded away just as quickly. Everyone leapt back to avoid getting struck by some unforseen technique, but the deed had already been done. What resulted was a yellow Sonic staring at a blue Tails.

"Whoa!" cried Amy. "You just switched colors!"

"Huh?" said the other two simultaneously. "You look just like me?!"

The sphere shook as if it was about to burst with laughter. It flew into the corner and became much wider and flatter, transforming into a reflective rectangle--a mirror. Perhaps the orb wanted to show its victims exactly what happened...

"BWAH!!" screamed the victims.

"We didn't switch colors," said Blue Tails in a panic, "we've switched species!"

"Hey, check it out! I'm Super Sonic!!" said Yellow Sonic. "Now I get to be all uber powerful and stuff."

"Enough!" shouted the blue one. "We got a crisis here!"

"Ok, well, I'm like really confused," said Amy. "Who's who?!"

"I'm Sonic and that's Tails, I think..." said Blue Tails.

Argh, I'm getting pretty confused too! Narrators don't get confused! I bet you as the reader feel the same way... Ok, how about let's remember that when I say Sonic, I mean Blue Tails, and when I say Tails, I mean Sup...uh, Yellow Sonic. We good now? Great.

"How do we get out of here _now??_" said Tails. "I can't fly anymore, and Sonic, flying is a thing that just doesn't come naturally when you're a fox."

"Um...we...wait?" staggered Sonic. "I really don't know!"

The sphere-mirror fell over on its own and curled back into its original form. It then rolled to the middle of the cell and grew about four times its size. A large spring coiled out from the bottom. Its round surface sprouted six handles around its circumference. It now resembled some kind of vehicle. It bounced in place like it was waiting for the three to board.

"Um...should we..." started Tails.

"Got any better ideas?" replied Sonic sarcastically. Tails shrugged and the three latched on to the Intensity Spring.

Meanwhile, on the surface, Dr. Robotnik was lecturing Paul angrily.

"Listen to me! If you're going to carry my handsome looks, you better not act stupid! Swords are not objects you just toss away when you're done with 'em!"

"I'm sowwy, Doctor," said Paul like a sincere three-year-old. "I pwomise I never again trow my swors."

Robotnik wasn't sure how to accept this apology. He was about to say something, most likely in an awkward and staggered tone, when suddenly Sonic, Tails, and Amy came bouncing out of that crevice in which they were supposedly imprisoned without hope.

"What?!" screamed the villain, furious. "Where did...how did you..." He noticed the spherical shape and color of their vehicle and assumed that it was the Sphere's doing. He knew that it would be a bad idea to try and seize it back, so he hopped into his cruiser (dragging his cohort by the arm) and started to fly off. "You just got lucky, you pests! Next time I'll get you for good!" He left so quickly he didn't notice the color mismatch.

"That was weird," said Amy. "He just... gave up."

"You think _that_ was weird?!" said Sonic in an outrage. "After what me and Tails just went through?!"

"Hmm, did you see that?" said Tails, paying no attention to Sonic. "There were 2 Eggmen. Think the Orb created that clone?"

"That's my guess," said Amy.

"Now if only we can get that thing to change us back to _normal_!" shouted Sonic as he kicked the orb-spring. It suddenly turned black and grew to about ten times its size!! Everyone took a step back in astonishment. The Orb suddenly spawned hundreds of black lightning bolts that each zapped the first object in its direction, including buildings, trees, rocks, and even some random bystanders. Each lightning strike turned the object that it hit a pure jet-black. This included our three heroes. The lightning did, however, return Sonic and Tails to their normal forms.

"What the..." said Sonic. "Great, first I look like Tails, and now I'm Shadow!!" Oddly enough, Sonic now looked exactly like Shadow, right down to the shoes. Amy and Tails on the other hand were completely black as if covered in soot.

"Ew, I hate black!" cried Amy.

The Intensity Orb returned to normal size and color, then bounced off like a rubber ball, heading in the general direction of where Robotnik and Paul escaped to.

"Should we follow it?" said Tails.

"And risk having something even worse happen to us?! Count me out!" shouted Sonic. "I'm going to go buy some blue paint."

As if on cue, the sky began to cloud up and rain quite heavily. The Shadow-ness instantly washed off of Sonic, leaving him blue and perfectly normal. None of the other blackened things were affected, though.

Tails looked around a bit. "Well, how about we just do some research on this thing?"

"And find a way to turn me back to normal!" added Amy. "Black is _so _not my color!!"

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**Oh dear, where is that orb off to now? Will Tails actually find something about this thing? Will Amy ever get her pinkiness back? Sorry, I can't answer those questions. You'll just have to do your part and push my story along with your happy reviews and favorites. Happy Mother's Day...! (for lack of a better closing statement)**


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